1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a biochip and a biochip reader for applying a plurality of excitation light beams to a plurality of sites of a biochip at the same time.
2. Description of the Related Art
A biochip reader for applying a plurality of excitation light beams to a plurality of sites of a biochip at the same time and observing a specimen at each site is available. (For example, refer to JP-A-2002-207007.)
FIG. 6 is a drawing to show a configuration example of a biochip reader designed to read image information of a plurality of specimens by a non-scanning method, described in JP-A-2002-207007. In the figure, light from a light source 1 becomes collimated light through a lens 2 and is collected by microlenses MLs of a microlens array MA placed with a spacing equal to a specimen pitch P of a biochip 6. Then, the light becomes collimated light through a lens 3 and is reflected on a dichroic mirror 4 and is formed as an image on the biochip 6 through an object lens 5.
Each spot of the biochip 6 is excited by the collected light, producing fluorescence. The fluorescence passes through the object lens 5, the dichroic mirror 4, and a filter 7 in order and is formed as an image on a photoreceiver (for example, a camera, etc.,) 9 through a lens 8. Thus, a specimen surface image can be provided without light scanning. The image formation spot size through the microlens array MA is made almost equal to specimen size S1, S2, . . .
JP-A-2002-207007 is referred to as a related art.
However, the biochip reader in the related art involves the following problems:    (1) Air is involved in optical system and the amount of light that can be received is limited.    (2) It is difficult to perform alignment between multibeam and site.